The Fair is so ridiculous on so many levels. But, I still end up going. Usually because I have friends going, and I want to hang with them. Sometimes there's a band I want to see. One time Joe Walsh. Another time harp legend James Cotton.

A few years back, they paid Journey something like $90,000. This is a band that no longer had singer Steve Perry.

I'm not sure how much they paid Boston this year. But, you need to pay extra for the Boston ticket. And, their lead singer killed himself. My friend Kevin tells me their current singer was a 50 year old dude working at Home Depot a few years back.

I think the fair should just book bands you could see for free with fair admission. If that means they are cheesy 70s bands, or one-hit wonders, so be it.

Parking, which is usually a nightmare, went smoothly. Maybe because it was a Wednesday and the crowd was small.

I walked in and see a 10-year-old boy sitting on a bench, with a framed picture he won in a contest. It was a woman in a bikini bending over a sports car.

I walked thru the Bing Crosby Hall, to look at all the crap for sale. I was surprised to not see any of the fudge, which I always loved. Instead, there were chocolate chip cookies.

One booth had sunglasses. And, I needed a new pair of clip-ons for my glasses. After ordering two pairs, at $70 a piece from my eye doctor, I was going the cheap route. This guy was telling me about a pair for $20. He went into his sales pitch, and how a guy recently sent him a letter saying he's had his for nine years and they still don't have a scratch on them. I always think about calling someone on something like that. A customer that spent $20 on a product, would sit down and write a letter to a company to thank them, for something they purchased a decade earlier. Right.

Knowing these people always drop their prices when you start to walk away, and because this is true, I said I saw a similar pair in Rite Aid recently. He said "Well, this is my price, okay! That's all I can offer you, so leave. I don't have time for this!" He then sat down in a chair about 25 feet away. I looked at my girlfriend, laughed, and said okay. I joked when we walked around the corner, about walking back around with my hat turned backwards, disguising my voice, saying "Will you sell these clip-ons for ten bucks?"

Later at the fair I found a similar pair at a booth outside near the animals for $12.

And, why was I near the stinky animals? My girlfriend talked me into watching the pig races. I wondered if PETA would freak on something like that.

It was cute watching the three year old kids get excited by this. And, the handicapped persons dog, which was ready to run after those delicious looking swine.

As we were leaving, a 60-year-old lady was paying the $30 to go onto that bungee ride that shoots you up into the air. Remember the one, at this same location, where eight years ago the heavy-set woman started to slip out of the safety harness? That video is still shown today on different "amazing video" shows.

I ate some Australian deep fried potatoes. They were overrated.

I ran into a friend who raved about a few of the weird fried things they had.

I didn't want to try any of those funky weird things, though. I played it safe and had garlic fries and a soft serve ice cream cone. Now I have a stomach ache.

I had the worst lemonade ever. I knew I should've just waited in the long line at Hot Dog on a Stick.

It was getting near the time where a band would be hitting the grandstand stage. I checked the program to see who it would be.

Comedian Sinbad.

In the early 90s, I sat next to him at a basketball game at the San Diego Sports Arena. He went into the locker room to get Michael Jordans autograph, which I thought was odd.

I was happy to see they didn't charge extra to see him.

Not enough to stay and see him, though.